The poster for this year's Montpellier Festival was designed by the artist Gisèle Cazilhac in collaboration with the Jemgo graphics studio.

A full-time painter since 1992, Gisèle Cazilhac studied art at school and then at the École des Beaux Arts in Montpellier. After working as a layout artist and graphic designer in printing and advertising, she decided to devote herself entirely to painting.

A fine draughtsman and colourist, an artist who uses flamboyant acid, fluorescent colours, she is well established on the Montpellier scene, and paints with passion, deftness and appetite. She creates daring juxtapositions of patches of bright, invigorating and eye-catching colour. 'All colours can live together. You mustn't be afraid. They can live in perfect harmony when you know how to tame them,' she says, considering herself also as a scene setter.

Just the right sort of scene setter for a cinema festival, to which she lends her universe, her gaiety, her characters and her humour.

Online entry of films for selection for the various competitions and panoramas has been possible since 15 February on our site www.cinemed.tm.fr.

Participation is open to films made since 1 January 2005 and whose subject and treatment contribute to enriching cinematographic representations of the Mediterranean area and whose director is from one of the countries around the Mediterranean or the Black Sea or from Portugal or Armenia.

This year again, more than €50,000 in cash prizes will be awarded to the winners together with various prizes consisting of services and aid from our partners, worth €35,000.
The list of the prizes to be awarded in the various competitions will be available in September 2006.
For information, the 2005 prizes can be seen on this link.

The Montpellier Festival has organised 'Classes L' training courses every year since 1992 within the framework of preparation of the Baccalauréat for classes taking the cinema-audiovisual option. During the 2005 'Classes L' course, in collaboration ECM Kawenga, the Festival organised a video creation training course run by the video artist artiste Pierre-Yves Cruaud.

The course was followed by a group of cinema option Baccalauréat year pupils from Lycée Arthur-Rimbaud in Sin-le-Noble. The young students made five 1-minute films on the theme of 'territories'. One of them, called 'Transit', has just won the 2nd Prize for Création vidéo jeune public une minute at the Videoformes in Clermont-Ferrand. Our congratulations go to the four directors Ugo Zanutto, Paul Pirritano, Faustine Lefèvre and Fabien Daporil.